File or bill holder



T. W. BROWN. FILE 0R BILL HOLDER.

No. 10,820. Patent edApr. 25, 1854.

STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS W. BROWN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

FILE OR BILL HOLDER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 10,820, dated April 25, 1854.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS W. BROWN, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in File or Bill Holders; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings Figure 1, represents a side elevation; Fig. 2, a top view, and Fig. 3, a central, vertical and longitudinal section of a bill or file holder constructed on my improved plan.

In the said drawings A-, and B, represent.

two flat boards made rectangular in shape and to correspond with each otherin length and breadth. In the middle of the upper board and below its upper surface a circular recess C, is'sunk. Within this recess a circular annulus or ringer short hollow barrel, D, is arranged as seen in the drawings. There is a coiled spiral spring, E, arranged within this barrel, the outer end of it being attached to the barrel while the inner end of it is aflixed to a stationary screw or pin F. To the grooved periphery of the barrel, four cords, G, H, I, K, are aflixed they being Wound around it and made to extend through orifices bored through the side of the recess C, and tangentially with the periphery of the barrel. After passing through said recesses, each of the cords is attached to the lower board B, two of the cords being fastened to one edge of it, while the other two are fastened to the opposite edge. Under this state of things, if the upper board is moved away from the lower, the barrel, D, will be put in rotation so as to unwind the cords from it and at the same time coil up the spiral spring. On relieving the boards of the power by which they are separated from one another, the spiral spring will rotate the grooved barrel or ring and wind the cords thereon so as to force the boards toward one another.

The great advantage of my improved bill holder over otherswhose boards are drawn together by flexible bands of india rubber or springs, is that it admits as a general thing of a greater separation of the boards, one spring only is used in operating the movable boards and it is. employed or arranged where it is not liable to be injured or worn by contact with the file or papers that maybe placed between the boards. If the cords are made of cat-gutand the orifice in the upper board through which they are led are properly bushed or made smooth there will be little danger of any injurious wear upon the cord.

I am aware that spring. bands have been applied to the two boards of a bill or file holder so as to draw them toward one another and upon papers interposed between them and to admit of their being moved apart from one another, such bands having generally been made in whole or in part of india rubber. I therefore do not claim the application of spring bands to the boards, but

What I do claim as my improvement is The arrangement or application of the circular grooved annulus, a spiral spring and the cords, together and with respect to the two boards in manner and so as to operate substantially as herein before specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature, this twenty-eighth day of December, A. D. 1853.

THOMAS WV. BROWN.

Witnesses R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

